


Five Moments

by guardiancastiel



Category: Avatar: Legend of Korra, Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Angst, BDSM, Character Death, F/M, Father-Daughter Relationship, Headcanon, Mother-Daughter Relationship
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-02-13
Updated: 2015-02-19
Packaged: 2018-03-12 04:59:35
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,711
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3344486
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/guardiancastiel/pseuds/guardiancastiel
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Five moments in Sokka's life related to Toph Beifong and her daughters.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Lin

He knew what it felt like to have the Earth shift from underneath him; for the foundation beneath his feet to give way. He knew what it felt like to fall – the sucking drop and the inevitable stop. He knew all about physically falling but emotionally falling – falling in love; Sokka had no idea what that felt like.

Sokka began to question if he had ever really been in love with Suki when she told him she was leaving him. Her words had been soft – almost apologetic in tone – but he couldn't help but feel like an explosion had gone off near his head. 

His ears were ringing when he started shouting at her. He wanted to know the reason why, but they could scream at each for days and she still would never tell him the truth – he knew the truth well enough though.

Somewhere in between their separate duties to the world they drifted apart from each other. While Sokka still wondered if their love had ever been true, he came to see whose arms Suki drifted into – Zuko's.

On his worst days Sokka plotted the Firelord's assassination. His brother-in-law, Aang, would laugh nervously at his plans hoping he wasn't serious.

_**He was serious.** _

On his good days there was Toph – the master Earthbender who was always up for a stress relieving sparring match. _Even if it was up against a worthless non-bender_ as she lovingly put it. 

Sokka never won a match.

“Maybe that's why Suki left you.” Toph laughed as she readjusted the metal cuffs around her wrists.

He snapped.

Sokka raised his sword over his head and aimed to bring it down over her. But before he could put a dent in her hair bun, Toph bent the sword out of his hands and sent it flying into the wall opposite of them. 

With another swift gesture, Toph raised a wall of Earth up from the ground and sent it sliding towards Sokka. He, still winded from their sparring match, failed to move quick enough before the solid wall of dirt sent him flying into the air and crashing onto the floor.

He laid there for a moment, panting and humiliated, before Toph strode toward him. She stood over him with her arms crossed, her thin lips pulled into a twisted smile. 

“Next time you need to head-slap yourself after witnessing your own sheer stupidity call me.” She outstretched a hand to him. “A wall of Earth to the face will put more sense into you, meat sack.”

He took her hand, initially intending to pull himself up, but instead pulled her to the ground with him. Sokka supposed that the only reason he was able to maneuver himself onto her was that he caught her by utter surprise. 

Honestly, he was a bit surprised himself when he lowered his lips to hers. When he pulled back from their kiss he stared into her opaque eyes – searching them for any hint of emotion. 

Toph moved quickly from underneath him, shifting his weight with ease, and flipped herself onto the dominant position. 

“I prefer to be on top,” she said, as she smiled down on him. 

Sokka let out an anxious laugh as he raised his hands to touch her. Toph's hands met his mid way and she slowly pinned them over his head.

Small pieces of dirt shot up from the ground and formed cuffs around his wrists. He eyed his restraints and tested out the amount of movement they allowed him.

“I hope you don't mind,” Toph said playfully, her mouth dressed in a coy smirk. While Sokka hesitated with his answer, she dropped her hands to his pants and began to tug them down.

“Not at all.”

&&&

A few days after Lin was born, Toph brought her newborn to Air Temple Island. 

He had done the math. He had wrote it out and everything – even had Katara double check the calculations without telling her the reason why.

He was Lin's father.

He hadn't _actually_ asked Toph if he was the father and she hadn't _actually_ said that he was the father, but he had a feeling.

He kept his feelings to himself though. While he and Toph had many intimate encounters, he had messed up whatever it was that they had between them. Seven months prior to Lin's birth, he found himself in bed with Suki – their past having caught up with them, tempting them into each others arms again. 

That affair led him to believe that they'd be together once more but Suki never contacted him again, leaving him to hold a torch to what they had before all over again. He didn't know if Suki ever told Zuko, but Sokka told Toph. 

She had nearly crushed him with a boulder that night. 

He wanted to forget that.

It had been a long while since they were in the same place at the same time. Sokka snuck around the temple, careful to remain unseen. Aang and Katara led Toph, Lin bundled in her arms, to one of their vacant rooms. They remained there for a moment before reemerging without Lin in tow. As the three headed away, Sokka quietly tip-toed toward the room, hopeful in sneaking a peak at the child. 

He looked over both shoulders before twisting the doorknob slowly.

“What do you think you're doing?” Sokka heard a familiar female voice snap as a wire of metal snaked around his arm and pulled him back abruptly. 

Toph was standing behind him.

“I was going to look at the baby!” He stated as he pulled back on the thin wire wrapped around his arm.

Toph whipped her arm slightly and the wire released it's hold on Sokka, slowing recoiling back into her outfit. 

“Why?” She asked sternly.

“I was going to try to convince her to join the Water Tribe,” he deadpanned. 

Toph replied with a solid punch to his shoulder. 

“Ow!”

“Geez, meat sack, shut up! You'll wake the thing!” Toph exclaimed as she reached passed him, closing the door he had opened. 

“Oh, c'mon Toph,” he whined. “I'm the only one who hasn't seen her.”

“Yeah, and you'll never see her,” she bit as she drove a vicious finger into his chest. 

“Why not?”

“You know why.”

He tried to read her emotions but he had never been good at that sort of thing. He had many ideas of why Toph would keep him from Lin – he didn't think she could be so cruel as to keep him from his own child, if his assumptions were true. 

“I apologized for what happened, Toph. I hurt you.”

She scoffed. “Oh please, block head. I wasn't hurt.”

Sokka wracked his brain for a moment. They had never been official, but they had something. It was beyond friendship but he couldn't name what it was. He hadn't wanted it to turn into what he had with Suki. If he was honest with himself, he wasn't sure that he ever got over Suki or that he ever would. It was quite obvious that he hadn't, having fallen into bed with her the moment he saw her again. 

But he _had_ had something with Toph. 

“Can I please see her, Toph?” Sokka tried again. 

It was apparent that no amount of acting could budge Toph from her initial decision to keep him from seeing Lin. He concluded that only the pure sincerity in his heart could move her and it did. 

She opened the door for him slowly and pressed a finger to her lips, as he tip-toed inside. 

The room was dimly lit, the only light was a small lamp beside the crib where Lin slept. 

And there she was, a little angel wrapped in a green blanket. 

He had questioned whether he had ever loved Suki – whether she had ever truly loved him. He didn't understand what he had with Toph but as peered down into the crib and down at the infant, he _fell_. 

The Earth shifted without moving his physical body; instead moving his heart. It was in that instant he knew love. 

Without Toph's permission he reached down into the crib, lifting the small newborn into his arms.

“Oh, you block head! You'll wake the creature! She wails like a howler monkey!” Toph said as she prepared herself to smack Sokka over the head till she realized Lin was already awake.

Sokka ran his hand over Lin's nearly bare head, brushing back only a few soft strands of dark hair covering her crown. Lin blinked at him groggily, her bright green eyes meeting his blue ones. 

She had his facial structure, that's where the physical similarities ended. He smiled as she began to reach up at his goatee. 

“She's beautiful,” he whispered.

Although he could not see it, at that moment Toph smiled and nodded – a single tear escaping her eye before she wiped it away. 

“Of course she is.”


	2. Suyin

He knew of death, he didn't have to question it like he had love. He knew of it's sudden and treacherous sting; how it robbed him of hope. Sokka had long been separated from Suki, but even in their distance he hoped fate would bring them together once more.

Lin had been four years old when Suki passed away. 

Suki had been pregnant with her second child – a male. Before he was to term, she went into labor. The early labor produced many complications and both Suki and the baby perished. Her first labor with Izumi, two years prior, had been an easy one; no complications, from what Sokka had heard.

No one could've foreseen her death or the death of her child. 

Sokka attended the funeral, along with Aang, Katara and Toph. Feeling both filled with anguish and anger he kept a bottle of the Fire Nation's finest fire whiskey never too far from his lips. He regretted his presence at the wake – his ability to keep composure upon the viewing of Suki's body tested his strength beyond what he could bear.

She was to be buried as the warrior she was – in full Kyoshi uniform and make-up. Upon viewing her, the memories of their first meeting flooded Sokka's thoughts. He suddenly felt unstable on his legs and while searching for an object to steady himself with, he caught a glimpse of Firelord Zuko and his young daughter. 

The Firelord, with his stoic face so statuesque you could almost see the cracks that alluded to his failing composure. Sokka knew him well enough to know that he was on the verge of collapsing. He supposed that the only tether keeping Zuko upright was his young daughter, her tiny hand wrapped in his. 

In that moment Sokka felt jealousy over Zuko for the first and last time in his life. 

Back in Republic City, little Lin was probably fighting her nap time and making her babysitter's life miserable. Sokka had seen her so few times since she had been born despite his attempts to make his way into her life without demanding anything from Toph. The woman had not mentioned anything concerning the child's true father and although Katara admitted to Sokka that she had once asked the Earthbender who Lin's father was, she had not been given an answer. 

Sokka expected as much, if he was Lin's father, Toph would never tell Katara. 

Izumi was an exact copy of Zuko; it was as if he had birthed her himself. Sokka thought of Lin, her big green eyes and ivory skin – her features not at all like his. 

Hesitantly, Sokka approached the royal family and knelt down on one knee in front of the princess. It was evident that the child had been crying and that she was fighting her hardest not to start again. He caressed her cheek and placed a gentle kiss on her forehead. Sokka then stood, his eyes meeting Zuko's, and placed a heavy hand on the Firelord's shoulder. 

Sokka wasn't sure where their relationship stood or whether or not Zuko knew about his flings with Suki, but there was one thing he was certain about – they had both lost a great woman. Zuko having lost a great deal more than just Suki, but also his son. 

Sokka felt selfish in his pain as he stared into Zuko's eyes. He wished he could find the words that could ease whatever suffering Zuko and his daughter were feeling, but he felt that words would only fail short and that they could in no way extinguish their of loss. 

 

&&&

Death had a been a part of his life since he was very young and Sokka strongly felt like it was the great equalizer among humans; it left no one untouched or unaffected. As someone who had experienced many losses in his life, his inability to deal with Suki's death left him empty inside. 

Before, when Suki was alive, Sokka had some small hope that destiny would bring them together again. That somehow they would realize that the love that they might have had for each could once again be rekindled. Even when he received word that Izumi had been born, Sokka refused to let her go from his heart.

And maybe that was his mistake.

While yearning for Suki, he also longed to be Lin's true father. He imagined himself a life where he and Toph could raise Lin together and maybe Toph could give him the romantic love that had eluded him for most of his adult life. 

But even with Suki gone, he was still torn between his desires.

For a year and half Sokka sought to find himself again, to rebuild himself, and search out the things that he had lost. It was no surprise to him that the end of his journey he found himself in front of Toph's home in Republic City. 

Sokka knocked lightly at her door, well aware that both Toph and Lin were most likely asleep. He waited for a moment and then he heard Toph's heavy footsteps approaching the entrance. 

“This better be good!' Toph exclaimed as she flung the door open. “Who shows up at two in the morning?”

A silenced passed between them. Sokka stood smiling in front of her, Toph's face mildly illuminated by the moonlight. 

“Meat head?” She asked softly.

“In the flesh,” Sokka answered as he stepped forward to embrace her.

Before he could get his arms around her, she landed a solid punch to his chest causing him to heave instantaneously. 

“It's been too long,” she said wryly and pulled him into a tight hug. “Come inside, but I swear if you wake up my brat you'll be dealing with a concussion like you've never had before!”

Sokka nodded and rubbed at his sore chest. It had been awhile since he had felt one of Toph's punches; oddly, he found that he missed them.

She showed into him her home and quietly led him into her kitchen. 

“You're probably thinking what the hell are we doing tip toeing around an Earthbending kid,” Toph whispered, a hint of amusement under her breath. “Lin hasn't mastered seismic sense yet.”

“Well she's only five,” Sokka shrugged, as he tried quietly to place his weapons on Toph's kitchen table.

“She's a little slow,” Toph stated, flatly. 

“Toph! Don't say that, she's just a kid.”

Toph shrugged. “Yeah, she's my kid and I expect certain accomplishments from her.”

Sokka didn't know what to say. For a brief moment he wanted to say that Lin was his kid too, but that would've been extremely out of line even if he knew for certain that he really was Lin's dad. He wasn't present enough.

“Can I see her?” Sokka asked.

Toph quickly shook her head. “No. I swear I load that kid up with four hours of bending practice each day and she is still difficult to put down at night. She might not be able to sense someone at ten feet away but she sure can feel you at five feet.”

“Please Toph, I haven't seen her in over a year!”

“What is your obsession with my kid?” She spat.

They both stood in silence for a moment till Toph spoke again.

“Where did you go, Sokka?” The ferocity in her voice had completed dissipated and only her genuine interest questioned him now. 

Had she missed him? Sokka wondered. Had he hurt her by leaving?

“I had to find myself,” he said, plainly.

“No bullshit answers, Sokka!” She demanded.

“After Suki died, I had lost so much.” He noticed Toph shift uncomfortably where she stood. “I had to know if it was possible to find myself again through all that darkness. I needed to find somethings that I thought I had lost forever, in order to solidify that my life wasn't a complete loss.”

“I didn't know you were so existential,” Toph said, softly. 

He hushed her and took her hand in his. He slowly lead her to the table where he had placed the weapons he had been carrying with him and placed her hand on an object made of cold metal.

For a moment her hand searched the instrument, slowly stroking it before letting out a gasp.

“Your meteorite sword!” 

Sokka nodded and then moved her hand to another weapon.

“And your boomerang,” she said and smiled. “You went back to the Wulong Forest for them?”

“After all these years, they were still there. Almost like they had been waiting for me.”

He still had her hand in his and as he looked down to her smiling face, he placed a gentle kiss on her lips. 

“I'm an idiot,” he whispered as he broke their kiss.

“Yes, you are,” she laughed, as she placed another kiss on his lips and began to lead him to her room. “I already knew that.”

&&&

“Uncle Sokka, she has your skin color,” Lin said, as she playfully nudged her baby sister Suyin. 

Sokka shifted tensely in his chair, Su cradled in his arms. “Yeah, kind of,” he whispered, trying to keep his words from reaching Toph's ears. 

Lin nudged at Su a little more before resting her chin on Sokka's arm. The infant in his arms had stayed calm during her sister's prodding and Sokka was entirely grateful for that. 

While his relationship with Toph was still undefined, Sokka found comfort in being able to spend time around the Beifong home. The love he felt upon first seeing Lin, was mimicked when Suyin was born. The only difference had been he had been present during Suyin's birth, which he truly believed to be a miraculous experience – he even held Toph's hand during the birth. He later regretted that when she broke his hand during the final moments of labor, but holding Suyin afterward made up for the pain. 

“Uncle Sokka, are you our dad?” Lin asked suddenly, her big green eyes staring up at him earnestly.

Sokka let out a nervous laugh and shot a glance at Toph in the kitchen. He hoped Lin's question had been out of her earshot. 

While he and Toph had been intimate around the time Su could've been conceived, he still was not entirely sure if he was her biological father. Sokka had spent a lot of his time between Republic City and the South Pole and he knew that Toph was never celibate during his times away. She had never hidden her other relationships from him.

Sokka valued her honesty and yet, he found it distressing that she never said who the father or fathers of her children were. Their relationship was physical but it was more than that – Sokka had to believe that it was. 

“Are you?” Lin whined. 

He looked down at her and then at the tiny infant in his arms. 

“Lin!” Toph said suddenly, her head peaking out from the kitchen. “Go outside and practice your bending!”

Sokka sighed in relief as Lin stalked away. Every inch of him wanted to tell the little girl yes but that was not his place – no matter what he believed. 

“Need a break?” Toph asked.

Sokka pulled Suyin closer to him, her tiny eyes growing heavy as she yawned. He shook his head and stared deeply at the small infant.

“No,” he answered, a smile rising at the corners of his lips.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My muse is a little stifled at the moment but I hope to get back into the groove soon.


	3. Dolls

He loved the moments before her day began, when she would sit at the edge of the bed – her long black hair hanging heavy past her shoulders and down her bare back in a tangled mess. She would sit for only a moment, regaining her senses, groggy and slow from her sleep. 

Sokka would then watch Toph begin her day, admiring her strong movements as she put on her uniform; half metal and half cloth. The tangles in her hair would then relent to the brush she tugged through her thick black strands, which she would then fashion into a large bun a top her head and finish by placing a ribbon around her hair-do.

Usually, he'd be up with Sun maybe even earlier if his duties called him to it but he was on a well deserved vacation. It would be brief, as he had just been elected the Southern Water Tribe chieftain, but nonetheless enjoyable for him. 

Sokka had arrived late in the night and had been quickly pulled into the house by Toph – her rough hands dragging him to her bedroom. He loved her insatiable nature, even if at the end of their love-making he was left bruises and scratches. 

“If you're going to watch Lin and Su for me today, you're going to want to be up in a few minutes,” Toph said over her shoulder.

Sokka rolled onto his back and whined. “But it's my vacation.”

“Hey, you volunteered for this last night!” She reminded him. 

“I was stuporous – anything I say after sex can't be taken seriously.”

“And the great Southern Water Tribe elected you their new chief?” She mocked. “Now get up before I whip you with one of my metal cables.”

“Is that a promise?” 

&&&

“I don't like dolls!” Lin exclaimed as she stomped her foot into the ground creating a small crater around it. 

“That's why I brought you an authentic Southern Water tribe _warrior_ ,” Sokka tried as he handed her the plaything. “See, he has a warrior's uniform and the pelt of an actual Polar Bear Dog and see here,” he pointed to the figure's tiny leather belt. “Attachments for his sword and bone club.” 

“Did you bring me a dolly too,” Su asked as she eagerly climbed into his lap. 

“Mine's not a doll, it's a warrior!” Lin yelled. 

As Lin ran off, he handed her little sister the warrior doll's companion. 

“She's a Water Tribe princess,” he said softly as he handed her the toy. 

“Am I a princess, Daddy?” Su asked, her small voice cutting through him like a blade. 

“What did you say?” 

“No, stupid! He's _Uncle_ Sokka!” Lin corrected her as she stomped back toward the two.

“No, he's my Daddy. Sokka's my Daddy!” Su yelled back her sister. 

The two girls began a screaming match, that quickly became unintelligible. Sokka let it go on for a moment, dumbfounded by Su's statements. He felt the younger girl begin to squirm in his lap and he let her slide down off his legs without protest. 

When he began to feel the ground beneath him shake he quickly shook himself from his trance – just in time to catch Lin's hand before she bent a slab of Earth onto Su.

“Girls, stop! If your mom comes home to a wrecked house she'll bury us all!”

“Magic dirt, Daddy!” Su exclaimed before bending a clump soil into Sokka's face.

&&&

After hours of being pelted with rocks, Sokka finally managed to settle the girl's into their naps. Toph had warned him that if they became too much to handle that he could take them to Katara; after having swallowed more than two clumps of dirt he almost considered it. 

But Katara had her hands full with her three kids and although she was Lin and Su's primary babysitter, Sokka still felt that adding two Earthbenders to the brood of children on Air Temple Island would certainly ruin his sister's day. Besides, it was his first time taking care of the girls by himself and he liked the idea of that. The only thing that bothered him was that he was babysitting, not parenting. 

Su had called him Daddy and Lin had protested. He wondered if she remembered when she first asked him if he was her father. That day, she caught him by surprise, questioning him about something he was not sure about. 

It was almost time for Toph to get out of work; as he waited for her, he sharpened his whale tooth blade in the backyard – his thoughts weighing heavily on him. 

After years of passivity he finally felt like it was time to seek answers. He was in a better place than when Suki had died – his frame of mind clearer and his heart filled with purpose. 

He could hear Toph entering the home, trying to be quiet as she made her way outside to the backyard.

“Did the brats give you a hard time?” 

Sokka shook his head and returned his blade to its sheath.

“You're lying.”

Sokka slouched in the chair he was sitting in. “How do you _do_ that?”

“Earthbending magic!” Toph exclaimed and slapped his shoulder. “My kids give everyone a hard time. Just be glad Katara's kids weren't over here as well.”

“Toph,” he interjected. “Su said something today,” he paused. For the life of him, he wasn't sure he could get out the words he wanted to say. 

“Did she cuss?” She asked quickly. “Lin's picked up that habit.”

“No, nothing like that!”

“Then what?”

“She called me Daddy.” He winced at his words, fully expecting Toph to hit him with a wild punch or a wall of Earth; no such assault came. 

“So?” Toph shrugged. “You're the only male figure around and she got confused. Just tell her no next time.”

Her aloofness bothered him, it bothered him so much he could scream. 

“What if I don't want to tell her _no_?” His tone sounded threatening, something he hadn't intended.

“Excuse me? What are you saying?” Her stance became defensive.

“Is _she_ ,” Sokka hesitated. “Are the _girls_ , my daughters?

Before he could move he felt a rush of Earth surround him, enveloping him in a prison of dirt. 

“Just who do you think you are, meat head! Asking me a question like that! You have no right!” Toph yelled. 

Sokka struggled in his tight confinement. “I do have a right and you know it!” He spat. “We've slept together.”

“Ha!” Toph interrupted. “You're not the only person I've slept with!” 

“ _Still_ ,” he nagged. “I just want to know!”

“Why?”

“Because I want to be here for them!” It was then that Toph released from his dirt confines – the dirt slid down from around him and he stood up from the chair he had been sitting on and shook his body. 

“Why?” She asked again, almost begging, her eyes looking down at her feet. 

“I know we have an odd relationship but you've always been here for me, no matter what stupid thing I've gotten myself into – you've always welcomed me. Those girls in there,” he threw a thumb over his shoulder aiming at the home. “They taught me what true love is.” 

Sokka noticed Toph's body tense, he noticed the tiny tears begin to run down her face. “No,” she said, softly. She followed it with a shake of her head. 

“What?”

“Get out!” She yelled.

The shout startled him. For a moment he had believed Toph would relent, but as she began to bend rocks at him, he knew whatever hope he had of having his questions answered was gone. 

He sprinted from the Beifong home, avoiding the public streets to spare him the embarrassment. 

What had he done? 

The first and only day alone he would ever spend with the girls had ended in the worst way. He feared that he could never repair what he had just destroyed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I loved writing Sokka watching over the girls <3

**Author's Note:**

> Constructive criticism is welcomed.


End file.
